This year, someone who revealed the secrets of human reproduction quietly passed away, and you probably never heard of him...

The Swedish photographer Lennart Nilsson is not exactly a household name, but his photographs adorn the offices of many fertility clinics across the world and his images of human reproduction and early human life are known throughout the world.

Those pictures, such as the one above, were first published in a Life Magazine article in 1965 called “The Drama of Life Before Birth.” and later on in a book entitled “A Child Is Born.” His photos were even shown in the PBS series NOVA, in an episode entitled, "The Odyssey of Life."

Nilsson developed techniques for microphotography that enabled him to produce stunning images of something was at one time invisible, the origins of human life. Today we live in a world where IVF is widely available, images of human embryos, eggs and sperm can downloaded to your phone in seconds and every OBGYN has an ultrasound in his or her office. These are just things we take for granted.

In 1965, what Nilsson did was truly amazing. He revealed to us a hidden world, and what he shared with the world was even more amazing than fiction, a glimpse of the world that fertility specialists and embryologists see every day.